Fun fact: Hersh notes that Julia won all 8 phases of the 4 ISU competitions she was in this year. This was also a feat accomplished by Adelina last year, Caroline Zhang in 2006-2007, Yu-Na Kim in 2005-2006, and Mao Asada in 2004-2005.

Also, this isn't in the article, but seeing the pic of Gracie in her FS dress reminds me that it was modeled after Yu-Na Kim's Scheherazade FS dress.

Lol I just watched ALL top four ladies LPs on youtube, and it was nothing like I expected. Well nothing like I expected when it came to the winner.

Here are my thoughts:

Julia Lipinskaya ~ reading the comments I expected to see the Second Coming of Christ, or at least the phenomenal one-of-a-kind artistry of Oksana Baiul, even Sasha Cohen, but no, just a 13 yr. old ferret of a girl that skates like she's rushing through everything. Absolutely no tension nor stretch nor holding of her moves, and no facial expression or body expression of any kind. Likewise, no huge high jumps in the vein of a Tonya Harding, Midori Ito, or even Irina Slutskaya & Julia Sebestian. Not to mention not even one 3/3 combo. :D And her spins are pretty good, but she's no Lucinda Ruh nor Sasha Cohen (whom pointed her toes & had the best tension/stretch of anybody I've ever seen in the history of the sport, fact). I honestly think what won her the competition is she skated clean, which is much easier to do when you're not doing 3/3s, especially the difficult 3/3s (one 3T/3T combo. in the SP is the easiest of the bunch). To sum it all up, I wasunimpressed, I've seen much much much better during my 4 decades of watching figure skating. But then again I don't expect much from juniors, so take it all with a grain of salt. (:^)

Gracie Gold ~ blown away by her huge high correctly rotated triple jumps! My God she does have Tonya Harding style jumps, combined with the look of an older more glamourous Tara Lipinski, topped off with Michelle Kwan's calm & steady nerves (only doubling her 3R jump). But that said, she really does need to work on her presentation/artistry/whateveryoucallit. She's not awful nor is she phenomenal, rather average, which is good enough to win a medal, but not good enough to win the big ones like Worlds & Olympics. Jmho. Seriously, what really bugged me the most is the way she holds her shoulders, very stiff, not as stiff as Timothy Goebel but close. :( Thank goodness she has the jumps & technical arsenal, as well as poise & a matured body, because all those things together drew me into her performance. She holds her head high like a Queen and takes her time, a real lady out there, but if she can just soften her shoulders and arms that would help tremendously. But for now I absolutely love how she is progressing. As God is my witness I can see HER getting a 3axel! Defintely going to watch her skate again & again after this post. (:^)

Adelina Sotnikova ~ ah not worried at all, SHE literally has everything! What cost her was the fall and unsteady landings on a few jumps, but that's understandable considering her growth spurt this year & injuries, as well as a long season (even participating in YOG). No worries, she's still only 15, still has her big huge high triple jumps, as well as difficult 3/3 combos. (but replace the 3Z/3R with the 3Z/3T, which she can fully rotate & receive all +GOE execution on). All she needs is to skate clean and she should win imho (oops also needs to correct her lutz entry). So on that score I say work on skating clean & consistent with a correct entry on the lutz because she has everything else.

Polina Shelepen ~ I expected to be blown away after I saw she did two 3/3 combos. from the protocols, but sadly & honestly I wasn't. Very boring. In fact I wanted to fastforward through her performance but held off. What she has going for her is she seems to be done with puberty juding by her tall lithe figure (reminiscent of Amber Corwin imho) and *can* do two 3/3 combos., though they were not in the vein of Gracie Gold or Adelina Sotnikova imho. And she can work on her artistry, choreography, moves, et al. Anybody that goes from 12th after the SP to 6th overall is a contender, definitely!

All in all a good competition, not great as I expected, but then again this is just Jr. Worlds, not Srs., where the girls become ladies and skate 30 seconds longer, as well as have the whole world watching on tv and the 'net.

Kudos to all the medalists, even Polina, now onto Seniors (hopefully). Time to put on their big girl panties and compete with the elite, veterans, and women they've only read about but not competed against until now... (;^)

Congrats to all those achieve their goal here.
So proud of Satoko,Zijun,Miu.
Satoko's 4th finishing is quite impressive for a 13 year-old first experience at JW.
Good for her to get full credit on 3Lz-3T at ISU competition first time.
Maybe Zijun can be better,but so natural and beautiful as always. I love how smooth she flows on the ice, don't feel any gravity from this lovely chinese doll.Does she have enough points to move up to senior and get 2 spots on GPS,doesn't she?
I'm impressed with Miu's showing. So fast and clean skate. I thought she's underscored especially PCS.

Anyone finds videos of Satoko and Ziquan FS? I've neard Ziquan upgrade her jumps from pre-round and would love to see it.

The up and coming junior girls are really great! Julia Lipintskaya has (dare I say) a sexy face and uber flexibility. She would be the total package except for a major problem, her jumps. Even if she were to manage puberty enough to keep the jumps, they would still be too small to garner GOEs, so big question mark regarding her long-term success. Gracie Gold has that old Hollywood glamour girl look, and that coupled with her humble attitude makes for a very appealing combination. She has dynamic jumps but everything else sort of needs development. However, she is sure to improve on those other skills given time and practice. Everything still needs polish, but Adelina Sotnikova fits the bill of 'total package' the most at the moment. It seems like she suffers from inconfidence, and I really think she is being forced to perform in a way that doesn't really suit her. She needs mentoring and guidance to come into her own personality. Polina Shepelen, I thought, was lovely to behold. She is behind Adelina in terms of development but she has potential. And Elizaveta Tutkameysheva gets special mention for her jumps. She sure has the best jumps out of them all, and she's very pretty, too. It's just that, like Gracie Gold, everything else besides jumps is very underdeveloped. I'm looking forward seeing them in the coming years!

Just watched the Top 4 in the free. I really enjoyed Lipnitskaya, she was a deserved winner. I like the use of her flexibility, I though the music and choreography worked well. I didn't realise Morozov was involved.

Gold has great jumps, high and powerfull but other aspects are a bit lacking yet but she has time to work on that. I did think she was a bit overmarked in the PCS elements. Sotnikova had a programme of two halves, first part very impressive and then she seemed to lose focus and then came the stumbles and fall. I like her as a skater, she has had a difficult season but she has come through it in one piece.

I like Shelpen, she does two 3/3 combos, and she went for it. She had a lot riding on this and it may have been enough to guarantee a spot for Senior Worlds. I think she was a bit undermarked compared to 2nd and 3rd. I definitely would not have Gold ahead of her on PCS.

All the skaters have been very well received by the crowd, which seemed fairly sizeable, they got behind all the skaters.

I just watched the medal ceremony on the Belarus channel. I was just wondering about Gold - Has she ever seen an ISU medal ceremony before? Like the Olympics or worlds? I thought it was common for a skater to congratulate one another (even if it is just shaking the hand, you don't have to hug). However, she didn't even look in Lipnitskaya's direction. Maybe I'm thinking this over too much and she was nervous or forgot. But it was kind of disrespectful.

Ha-ha. Well noticed. Either she is ill-mannered or never saw a medal ceremony before.